Editor's note: Tune in to AC360° at 10 p.m. ET tonight to watch the special report, "Kidnapped to Egypt: A Father's Nightmare." 

Nearly 12 years ago, Michael Shannon sent his two young sons to New York for what he thought what be a weekend visit with their mother.

It would be the last time he saw either one of them.

Nermeen Khalifa, the boys' mother and Shannon's ex-wife, took the children to her home country of Egypt, where U.S. citizens have almost no rights in custody battles.

"They were out of the country before we even knew they were gone," Shannon said. "I went to the apartment to pick them up. It was like it was ransacked."

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